A comparison of low-risk pregnant women booked for delivery in two systems of care: shared-care (consultant) and integrated general practice unit. I. Obstetrical procedures and neonatal outcome.

Samples of records of comparable low-risk pregnant women booked for delivery in an integrated general practice unit (GPU) and a consultant (or shared-care) system were derived from a computer tape of all 5005 births which occurred at the John Radcliffe Hospital in 1978. Induction of labour, epidural analgesia and forceps delivery were all less frequently carried out in women booked for delivery in the GPU. Infants of multiparous women were more often intubated in the shared-care system (3%) than in the GPU (0%); rates in infants of nulliparous women were similar (approx. 7%) in the two systems. These data suggest that short-term outcomes are as good for GPU-booked low-risk women and their infants as for comparable women booked in consultant or shared-care.